Man fights for controversial license plate back

State says plate is obscene

A Santa Fe man said his fight to get his controversial license plate back is about protecting everyone's rights.

Robert Anaya's vanity license plate was initially approved back in 2009, but he just got a letter from the Motor Vehicle Division saying it's revoked because it's considered obscene. The plate in question reads IB6UB9.

"If something is obscene or profanity, we have no place for it in New Mexico," Taxation and Revenue Department Secretary Demesia Padilla said.

Anaya said his plate is not a sexual reference, but an inside joke with a friend from a night at a casino.

However, the state said it's gotten enough complaints to cancel the plate. The state can't provide those complaints because officials say they weren't written or recorded.

Anaya's attorney said the license plate is not obscene, according to the definition in the constitution. He said in order for something to be obscene it has to be intolerable. If that were the case, the attorney says, people couldn't have any license plates with the number combination 6 and 9. In fact, he goes on to say those numbers couldn't be consecutively on house numbers, telephone numbers, prices and sports jerseys.

"If you allow the government to start chipping away at our constitutional rights, it can have more serious implications in the future," attorney Leon Howard said. "Mr. Anaya feels bullied by the MVD."

Anaya has appealed the MVD's decision and is waiting for a hearing. In the meantime, he's using a generic state-approved license plate.

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